Back in the early days of Alpha Testing in March 2011, Cody K, The King,
Chasm, Gil, Koda and Mikey founded an alliance known as the Free People
of Earth, or FPE for short. At the time, very few alliances were in
existence, and those that did exist were all 1 man operations, making
FPE the very first alliance in Project Terra.

At this time, the game was still in its early days of development, and a
month or so after founding the alliance, Admin announced his intent to
put development on hiatus for a month, and eventually have a reset.
Hearing this, Mikey, King, Cody and Chasm decided to take a break from FPE and explore
new horizons until after the reset (going onto establish themselves in
the game Lord Empires, where they would establish their first contact
with Guardian, beginning what would become a lasting friendship between
the two alliances). Gil and Koda decided to call it quits.

Some months later, in the beginning of July, PT came back online and
grew in popularity, and the four remaining FPE founders decided to head back to the
shores of Terra.

The Quartet quickly grew, after Mikey shamelessly poached
Lionheart (whom he had known from another game), who then brought his
friend Tenages into the fold.

After reconvening to bring the alliance back together, it was generally
agreed upon that the FPE name and theme sucked. A lot. Something had to
be done. So at Lionhearts suggestion, the theme was changed to a Song of
Ice and Fire, and the name Seven Kingdoms was decided upon. Thereupon
much discussing commenced, work was done to update the alliance and
write a charter, and Chasm, our technology master, was a lazy bastard
who took a week and a half to make the forum.

After establishing the theme and the charter, Lionheart was chosen as
the King of the Seven Kingdoms, opening in the first phase of our
history as SK - the Lion Era.

The beginning of his reign was marked by extraordinary growth for the
Seven Kingdoms. Through conniving, witchcraft, bribery, blackmail, and a
whole host of other less than reputable methods (they hired Tenages and
had him break kneecaps and control people with his voodoo), SK grew
from the 6 founders to 25 members in the space of two weeks. A week or
so after that, the alliance was at 73 members, making it the 6th most
powerful alliance in terms of nations, and one of the strongest in
military might.

A large part of this was due to the immigration of those DLP
sonsabitches. DLP is known for being some of the most badass and angry
people on the internet, making SK one of the most badass and angry
alliance on PT. The motto [which was since been changed] truly says it
all, Don't fuck with Seven Kingdoms.

Unfortunately, the continual game resets during this period took their
toll on the membership. With each successive reset, more members decided
to leave, choosing to wait until the game launched in beta stage to
come back. This was a trend that affected all alliances, and generally
lowered the number of nations in PT at the time.

During this time, the brilliant and handsome Lord Chancellor, Mikey, made great strides in the realm of Foreign Affairs.

Better relations were established with Guardian, with whom several founding
SK members had been close to - and allied with - in the game Lord
Empires. That friendship carried over, and eventually led to the D'Oh Accords, an MDoAP treaty with Guardian.

A treaty was also signed with the Roman Empire. Several SK member were apart of the Roman Empire in CN:TE - Mikey was high gov there, and
Lion had previously served as the head of their military. The close
personal connections on both sides led to an SK-RE protectorate, and
eventually to the Lucky Number 7 Treaty, an MDAP agreement between the two alliances that remained in effect until PT went down.

While no other treaties were signed during Lion's reign, great strides
were made in relations with Sparta (with whom SK would later treaty)

There were discussions at the time about setting up an economic bloc
named the Terran Economic Association (TEA). The principal parties were
Exodus, SK, Guardian, Sparta and the NPO. While TEA never came to
fruition, it did lead to a gentleman's agreement between SK, Sparta, NPO
and Guardian to stand together if the GOONS led block known as the WA
(World Assembly--separate from the game mechanic of the same name)
continued attempting to bully the world.

Another great success came with SK's mediation of the Beetlejuice War.
Much tension had existed between GOONS and Guardian, and had led to
increased verbal mudslinging and military posturing. On August 28th, the
two sides broke out in war.

During the conflict, SK mediators worked tirelessly to bring the
conflict to a close before it could engulf the rest of the world (SK,
Sparta, Odessa and NPO were allied to Guardian while CnG, TFE and NG
were allied to GOONS, all of whom risked being dragged into what was a foolish war driven by personal enmities on both sides). Ultimately, the Seven
Kingdoms played an instrumental part in brokering the peace reached 4
days later on September 2nd.

Unfortunately during the run-up to the Beetlejuice War, SK's formerly
positive relations with NPO were destroyed. GOONS had accused NPO of
spying on them and funding rogues, a charge vehemently denied by the
NPO. (It turned out that the rogues were funded by a dissident group
within the WA bloc who were attempting to provoke a global war) Much
contradictory information was flying about, --some untrue information
about the NPO was deliberately spread to other SK gov members by
Lionheart. The information that they were receiving led to the feeling
in SK that NPO had been playing both sides against the middle which led
to feelings of resentment and fury among SK government. Likewise NPO was
angry and bitter over the suggestion that they had been lying and
betraying the gentleman's agreement that existed between the major
powers in the Guardian sphere. This poisoned relationships between SK
and NPO, eventually leading to a complete breakdown. Lionhearts conduct
during this episode played a large role in his replacement as King.

The Seven Kingdoms are a bloodthirsty lot, and don't take well to
boredom. When Mikey and Retter found themselves with nothing to do and a
desire to test out the newly setup war system, no alliance was safe.

After bouncing around ideas, the two of them, as well as AridLegion,
decided to attack the alliance IRON. Eventually a DoW was posted, and a
full scale (though small, as the number of nations on both sides with militaries was not very large) war was waged between the two of them,
which lasted for 4 days, when both sides decided they had sufficiently
tested the system, and agreed to call of hostilities.

During this time, a proposal was put forth to give the World Assembly
more power. Previously, the WA had existed as an in-game function
whereby nations could submit resolutions to be read and voted on by the
broader PT community. These resolutions had no enforcement mechanism,
and were mainly used for nations to make suggestions to the PT
community.

The proposed new powers suggested creating an enforcement mechanism that
would bind all WA members by any resolution passed. This created huge
controversy, and sparked much debate - with the WA proposal going
through many phases: from mandatory membership of all nations, to be
bound by the WA, to the optional membership of alliances (if an AA
joined all its members had to do so), so on and so forth.

This was a problem, because it infringed on the sovereignty of
individual alliances by enacting a body higher than them which would
dictate to individual nations how to run their nations, and possibly
regulate FA/War interaction between AA's.

The Seven Kingdoms joined Guardian in submitting a resolution condemning
the WA, refusing to recognizing it, and affirming SK's belief in the
paramount importance of alliance Sovereignty.

By August of 2011, several members had become dissatisfied with Lions
aggressive, dictatorial and often-times arbitrary approach to
leadership. These members
presented their grievances to the Small Council, which also
shared the concerns. (The tipping point that had
been Lionhearts decision to fire the entire War Dept staff, citing
patently false justifications, without the input and over the later objections of Lord Commander Cody K, who nearly resigned over the issue.)

These concerns were exacerbated by his flighty and impulsive nature, his
inability during the run-up to the Beetlejuice War to develop and
commit to a strategy and his insistence on using
sources of information of dubious veracity that could not be verified by the Small Council.

The Lords unanimously drafted a resolution (as was their right by the
Charter) recalling Lion as King to take a place instead as a Lord in
the Small Council, and for him to be replaced by the Kings Hand,
Tenages.

Upon receiving this resolution, Lion initially accepted, signaling his
willingness to step down back into regular high gov. However, the next
day, shortly before the official announcement, he banned the Lords from
the forums, and booted them from the in-game alliance.

The Charter gave the Lords the power, by unanimous vote, to remove the
King; and in acting against that, and banning all of them, Lion violated
several key parts of the SK charter (a charter that he was a co-author
and signatory of) and in essence attempted to coup the alliance.

Fortunately Chasm, the root admin and
host of the SK forums, was a friend of the Small Council, and quickly
banned Lion from the forums, and restored the accounts of the other
Lords.

The next day, heated conversations took place on IRC, with Mikey acting
as a mediator (having been away when the coup took place, he was less caught up in the fury and best able to understand both sides). Eventually Lion,
claiming that he overreacted to what he supposedly perceived as an
attempt to coup him, apologized and restored the Council to their admin
positions in-game.

The Council, however, decided that Lions actions could not be tolerated.
Attempting to coup and breaching the charter were the worst of offenses, and Lion simply could not be
trusted. Tenages, with unanimous support from
the Small Council banned Lion for life from the Seven Kingdoms.

Fulfilling a promise made both to disgruntled members, and to Lord of
War Cody K, the first thing that was done under Tenages reign was a
complete review of the alliance charter. Lion's coup and the underlying
issues that led to it had exposed several issues with the current
charter. Most noticeably, under the old version it required complete
unanimity to for the Small Council to replace the King, and it was in
fact easier to amend the Charter than to replace the King. While
undertaking this review there was an open thread where general
membership could make any any suggestions, complaints, etc that they
had, to make sure all issues were addressed.

The new charter, while substantially the same, included more checks on
the power of the King, and completely re-organized internal structure,
what responsibilities fell to which Small Council Lord, and the naming
system for the different departments and Lords. The result was a much
more responsive, logical and effective structure.

During the beginning of Teanges reign, there was some growth in member
counts, however the general world-wide PT trend of members departing
until beta launch continued. Member count fluctuated, eventually
settling around the 35 that were left by the time PT went offline.

During this time, however, SK continued to grow in nation strength. Despite never
reaching higher than #7 in members (at times dipping to #12), SK
remained always in the top 10 for NS, usually keeping its place at #5.
During this time SK had one of the highest average NS ratings, and the
best nations in PT.

The FA Adonis Mikey continued to work his magic, and great things were achieved abroad.

During this time period the Seven Kingdoms signed 2 new treaties: an
MDoAP with Sparta, whom SK had been growing close to for some time, and
an oDoAP with the Black Knights, a newer friend. Through these
alliances, SK's global positioning and influence continued to expand.

The Seven Kingdoms also repaired its shattered relationship relationship
with the NPO. NPO's then regent (now Emperor) Jasmine first reached out
to Tenages on IRC and came to SK's forums, and he reciprocated the
gesture. Hard work on both sides and constant communication led to the
forging a new relationship that has blossomed to the point that NPO and
SK are each others closest friends in PT 2.0

Perhaps the most memorable thing to occur during this time period was
the Qausi-war between the Seven Kingdoms and the Terran Commune that
resulted in the implosion of TC without a single shot being fired.

On October 11th, 2011, The Terran Commune released the Solidarity Doctrine, essentially giving protectorate status to all Socialist oriented alliances and nations in PT.

This
was widely seen as a stupid move, and SK, eager for action and
astounded at the implications of such a doctrine, began applying
pressure.

It began with simply pointing out the flaws in the
idea of and more specifically the wording of the doctrine, however as
arguments erupted, both sides grew more heated. Mordecai was unleashed
from his cave, and The Great Troll wrought havoc on TC throughout the Alliance Politics Forum, and in our embassies. SK members also launched attacks on all
Socialist themed nations and alliances they could find out of peace
mode.

Threads such as This one showcase the war of words being waged by both sides.

As
both alliances militarized and prepared for armed conflict, however, TC
began coming apart at the seams. When they held a vote on whether or
not to declare war on us, everything imploded. The vote was split,
and the stress we had placed on them exacerbated internal issues and
caused the alliance to fracture. It is unclear to outsiders just what
happened in the proceeding hours, however during that time several
members left, various government members voiced competing claims to
leadership, and cries of a coup were heard across the AP Forum and the TC
forums.

The Great Interregnum

In mid-november, PT went offline, and users who entered the URL were met
with error messages. Many reasons have been floated to explain this
phenomenon, and the most widely credited is that admin did not have time
for the game any more, and, after taking time off for personal issues,
had forgotten to pay the site bills.

During this time, some 10
SK members decided to establish themselves in Ogame, while hoping for
the eventual return of Project-Terra.

Beginning in November of 2011, the board administrator, Chasm, began to
be called away by RL time commitments, and steadily grew less active:
this time also coincided with a rising interest among certain SK members
to undergo more customization of the forums.

With the gov
unable to access the necessary tools to spruce the place up (and with
the previous software not being the best available), it was decided to
transfer to new forums. Mikey bought a server, and work was begun on
what would become the greatest forums in Project Terra.

For a
solid week in late January, Tenages, Mikey, Moridin and Lyro worked
tirelessly to enact their great vision, what you see before you today.
This process was caractarized by long hours of work, little sleep, and
Mikey breaking the forums everytime we managed to achieve progress
somewhere.

At last, on the first of February, that ravishing embodiment of sex itself on the interwebs, www.7kingdoms.net/pt, went live.

Later on, in early July of 2012, Mikey decided that forums alone were not enough, and with some helped with Tenages build the current main portal you see today.

Growth has predictably been slow since the re-launch of Project Terra.
Slowly but surely, old members have been trickling in, and new members
have been recruited. By and large, however, much of the old crowd
persist in their determination not to return until the game goes Beta -
the recent period of the game being offline being further proof to them,
and a few others who joined their ranks in November, that the game is
not yet ready to have them back.

That said, SK has been growing
healthily and heartily. As of July 27th 2012, Membership stands at 43, up
from the original 12. Currently, with
the military system being overhauled, NS does not reflect economic development, however with 1 in 4 SK members being in the top 2% (making up a quarter of all top 40 nations), it is clear that the Seven Kingdoms continues its proud tradition of maintaining the best nations in the game.

Mikey and Tenages used the interregnum and the total game reset
that followed to embark on a new FA path. After announcing that all of SK's treaties would be considered cancelled in the new PT, SK engaged in many passionate internal debates over the future of its FA path, with a paperless route, sponsored by Mikey and Tenages, winning out. NPO proved receptive to the idea as well, and on March 6th the two became the first alliances to go paperless. Since then, the "FA Revolution" as some have dubbed it, has picked up steam, with Black Knights and Liquid Zero also going paperless.